Life

Welcome, baby Zoe.

We can't wait to meet you and we are so excited that you have entered this world and joined our family. Mercy talks about you a lot already, and I am excited that you and Mercy and Aaron will grow up together as cousins. I pray that we might live closer to each other as time progresses so that we can enjoy lots of time together!

Zoe, your name means life and that is something I have been thinking a lot about lately. Sometimes your Uncle Doug and I really wonder what we are doing here in Los Angeles, and we feel the burden of things being really hard a lot of the time. I think a lot about "life" and what kind I want for myself, for my husband, and for my kids. There are a lot of things right now about "life" that I don't understand and can't seem to figure out.

Zoe Rose, you are a reminder to me that life is a gift not a right. You remind me that life is fragile and dependent. You remind me that life only matters in relationship to those around you. You remind me that life sometimes IS hard. But you also remind me that life is bound up in hope for the future. I remember reading somewhere that having children is a prophetic act; it is a declaration of hope in the midst of so many things that feel painful and hopeless all around us.

In the midst of the darkness here, Zoe, you remind me to live prophetically. You remind me to live with the end in mind; to live as one who yearns and hopes...